Final remarks from the 2014-2016 La Pirogue Editor

As my time as La Pirogue Editor comes to an end, I cannot help but think back on all the memories made while putting these books together. Not all of the memoires of putting these books together have been favorable, but this volume of La Pirogue and all others before it capture the best memoires of each year at Nicholls so they are able to live on forever.

Just like any yearbook editor, my time here has been spent putting together the best and most significant events that happen within a year at Nicholls; however, I would not consider my time as editor to be anything close to typical. Anything that could go wrong did go wrong. Whether it was having to give up many school nights and the majority of my summers, having to call over my neighbors from The Nicholls Worth for help or having the server crash the day before deadline, my last two years as editor have been nothing short of a wild ride. While these hardships and many more like them are the ones that have made great stories, they are not the ones that define my time as editor and they certainly don’t come close to the ones that do.

With that being said, there is so much more to La Pirogue than the pages of this book will ever show. While I have spent my time here filling up the pages of these books, it is what is beyond these pages that mean the most to me.

When you flip the pages of this yearbook, I hope you will think back on the memories that are represented on these pages. When I look through this book, I see more than that. I see the memories that I have made putting this book together.

While there have been many people who consider La Pirogue to be a non-essential part of this university, I have filled up hundreds of pages with reasons that show why it means something special to Nicholls. The reasons represented on these pages show why this book is important to both you and Nicholls, but it’s what is beyond those pages that show why this book is important to me and to all those involved with La Pirogue.

As a part of this university, La Pirogue stands for many of the same things that Nicholls embodies: learning, experience and opportunities. Without La Pirogue, many of the people that I have seen grow throughout their time at Student Publications would have never gotten the opportunity to develop their interests and talents in preparation for life after graduation. Without La Pirogue, I would have never been thrown into situations that brought me down to my lowest point only to find that there were people around me who would help me up and move me forward. Beyond the mistakes and the difficult situations that have been experienced at La Pirogue, there is still hard work, passion and dedication behind it. Beyond the memories that this book is able to freeze in time, this is what La Pirogue means to me.

Just as this book will never be able to tell the entire story of my time here, it will never be able to show all the wonderful things Nicholls has to offer. While it never got any easier throughout my two years as editor, it has taught me to give myself some credit. Anyone who really knows what it’s like to put your all in to something for thousands of other people would never be quick to judge and would never hesitate to step in and help. While this book is put together by only a few, it represents the students of Nicholls. In turn, it is because of La Pirogue that I am able to be confident in my abilities long after graduation and look back on all the memories that I have helped commemorate and celebrate throughout these years at Nicholls.